kinetic and thermodynamic analysis of guaiacol hydrodeoxygenation … · 2019. 7. 4. · kinetic...

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Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation Alexandrina Sulman 1 Pa ¨ivi Ma ¨ ki-Arvela 1 Louis Bomont 1 Moldir Alda-Onggar 1 Vyacheslav Fedorov 1 Vincenzo Russo 2 Kari Era ¨ nen 1 Markus Peurla 3 Uliana Akhmetzyanova 4 Lenka Skuhrovcova ´ 4 Zdene ˇk Tis ˇler 4 Henrik Gre ´ nman 1 Johan Wa ¨ rnå 1 Dmitry Yu. Murzin 1 Received: 18 April 2019 / Accepted: 30 May 2019 / Published online: 12 June 2019 Ó The Author(s) 2019 Abstract Kinetics of guaiacol hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) was studied using supported Mo x C–SBA-15 and as a comparison 5 wt% Pt/C under 30 bar hydrogen at 200 °C and 300 °C. Catalyst characterization was done by a range of physical methods including also determination of the amount of coke and the nature of adsorbed species. Pt/C gave 2-methoxycyclohexanol as the main product, whereas Mo 2 C–SBA-15 promoted direct deoxygenation exhibiting also strong adsorption of guaiacol on the catalyst surface and formation of oligomers. Thermodynamics of guaiacol HDO was elucidated and the reaction network was proposed based on which kinetic modelling was done. Graphic Abstract OH O CH 3 O CH 3 OH OH OH CH 3 1 2 7 3 5 8 6 guaiacol cyclohexane 2-methoxycyclohexane cyclohexanol phenol anisole cresol O CH 3 OH O CH 3 2-methoxy- cyclohexanol 12 4 10 CH 3 toluene benzene 11 13 14 16 O CH 3 O 15 2-methoxy- cyclohexanone 9 (+methane) 17 (+guaiacol, -catechol) Keywords Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation Carbide Kinetics Thermodynamics List of Symbols K 0 j Equilibrium constant at standard conditions for reaction j n Moles (mol) P Pressure (bar) P 0 Standard pressure (bar) R Ideal gas constant (J/K/mol) T Absolute temperature (K) T 0 Absolute standard temperature (K) & Dmitry Yu. Murzin dmurzin@abo.fi 1 Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre, A ˚ bo Akademi University, Turku, Finland 2 Universita ` di Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, 4. IT-80126, Naples, Italy 3 University of Turku, Turku, Finland 4 Unipetrol Centre for Research and Education (UniCRE), Chempark Litvı ´nov, Block 2838, 436 70 Litvı ´nov-Za ´luz ˇı ´ 1, Czech Republic 123 Catalysis Letters (2019) 149:2453–2467 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-019-02856-x

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  • Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation

    Alexandrina Sulman1 • Päivi Mäki-Arvela1 • Louis Bomont1 • Moldir Alda-Onggar1 • Vyacheslav Fedorov1 •Vincenzo Russo2 • Kari Eränen1 • Markus Peurla3 • Uliana Akhmetzyanova4 • Lenka Skuhrovcová4 •Zdeněk Tišler4 • Henrik Grénman1 • Johan Wärnå1 • Dmitry Yu. Murzin1

    Received: 18 April 2019 / Accepted: 30 May 2019 / Published online: 12 June 2019� The Author(s) 2019

    AbstractKinetics of guaiacol hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) was studied using supported MoxC–SBA-15 and as a comparison 5 wt%

    Pt/C under 30 bar hydrogen at 200 �C and 300 �C. Catalyst characterization was done by a range of physical methodsincluding also determination of the amount of coke and the nature of adsorbed species. Pt/C gave 2-methoxycyclohexanol

    as the main product, whereas Mo2C–SBA-15 promoted direct deoxygenation exhibiting also strong adsorption of guaiacol

    on the catalyst surface and formation of oligomers. Thermodynamics of guaiacol HDO was elucidated and the reaction

    network was proposed based on which kinetic modelling was done.

    Graphic Abstract

    OH

    OCH3

    OCH3

    OH

    OH

    OH

    CH3

    1

    2

    7 3

    5

    8

    6

    guaiacol

    cyclohexane

    2-methoxycyclohexane

    cyclohexanol

    phenol

    anisole

    cresol

    OCH3

    OH

    OCH3

    2-methoxy-cyclohexanol

    12

    4

    10

    CH3

    toluene

    benzene

    11

    1314

    16

    OCH3

    O

    15

    2-methoxy-cyclohexanone

    9

    (+methane)

    17 (+guaiacol, -catechol)

    Keywords Guaiacol � Hydrodeoxygenation � Carbide � Kinetics � Thermodynamics

    List of SymbolsK0j Equilibrium constant at standard conditions for

    reaction j

    n Moles (mol)

    P Pressure (bar)

    P0 Standard pressure (bar)

    R Ideal gas constant (J/K/mol)

    T Absolute temperature (K)

    T0 Absolute standard temperature (K)

    & Dmitry Yu. [email protected]

    1 Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre, Åbo Akademi

    University, Turku, Finland

    2 Università di Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, 4. IT-80126,

    Naples, Italy

    3 University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    4 Unipetrol Centre for Research and Education (UniCRE),

    Chempark Litvı́nov, Block 2838, 436 70 Litvı́nov-Zálužı́ 1,

    Czech Republic

    123

    Catalysis Letters (2019) 149:2453–2467https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-019-02856-x(0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)

    http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0788-2643http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10562-019-02856-x&domain=pdfhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-019-02856-x

  • Greek SymbolsDG0f Gibbs free energy of formation at standard

    conditions (J/mol)

    DG0r Gibbs free energy of reaction at standardconditions (J/mol)

    DGUr;j Gibbs free energy of reaction at 1 bar and a chosentemperature (J/mol)

    DGr,j Gibbs free energy of reaction at a fixed temperatureand pressure (J/mol)

    DH0f Enthalpy of formation at standard conditions(J/mol)

    DH0r Enthalpy of reaction at standard conditions (J/mol)mi,j Stoichiometric matrix composed by i components

    and j reactions (–)

    1 Introduction

    Biomass has been recently used as a cheap and abundant

    raw material for production of fuels and chemicals, for

    example via pyrolysing woody biomass and extraction of

    lignin to obtain among other products large amounts of

    phenolic compounds. Such compounds are not suitable di-

    rectly as fuels due to their high oxygen content thus

    requiring deoxygenation. Bio-oil obtained by wood pyrol-

    ysis has a low pH, is unstable and contains some catalyst

    poisons. Subsequently catalytic deoxygenation is far from

    being straightforward. Upgrading of bio-oil and lignin

    extracts via hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is currently under

    intensive research [1–26] with both real bio-oil as well as

    model compounds used as a feedstock.

    HDO of guaiacol in particular has been intensively

    investigated recently using, for example, Fe/SiO2 [20],

    Mo2N [3, 4], Mo2C/CNF [2, 13], MoC/AC [16], Mo2C/AC

    [6], W2C/CNF [13], Ni/ZrO2 [23], NiP/SiO2 [25], ReOx[5], Au/TiO2 and Au–Rh/TiO2 [17], Pt/C [8], Pt/alumina

    silicate [10], PtPd–Al–HMS [26], PtPd–ZrO2–SiO2, [26]

    Ru/C [1], Ru–TiO2–ZrO2 [15], Rh/ZrO2 combined with

    alumina silicate [12] as catalysts. HDO is a complex pro-

    cess involving several parallel and consecutive reaction

    steps, e.g. demethoxylation (1, 11, 16), dehydroxylation (2,

    8, 13, 14), alkylation (4) and hydrogenation (3, 7, 12, 15)

    (Scheme 1; Table 1). Scheme 1 contains different reac-

    tions, which can be present during HDO depending on the

    reaction conditions and catalysts. For example, formation

    of cresol from phenol can occur through alternative path-

    ways (methanation, reaction 4) and transalkylation with

    guaiacol giving cresol and catechol (reaction 17). The

    latter reaction proceeds through a surface methoxide

    intermediate.

    The benefits of using carbides and nitrides as catalysts

    are their lower prices, moreover nitrides and carbides

    exhibit also metal-like properties [27]. However, synthesis

    of carbides and nitrides requires high temperatures, in the

    OH

    OCH3

    OCH3

    OH

    OH

    OH

    CH3

    1

    2

    7 3

    5

    8

    6

    guaiacol

    cyclohexane

    2-methoxycyclohexane

    cyclohexanol

    phenol

    anisole

    cresol

    OCH3

    OH

    OCH3

    2-methoxy-cyclohexanol

    12

    4

    10

    CH3

    toluene

    benzene

    11

    1314

    16

    OCH3

    O

    15

    2-methoxy-cyclohexanone

    9

    (+methane)

    17 (+guaiacol, -catechol)

    Scheme 1 Reaction scheme for guaiacol transformation based on [4, 12–14]

    2454 A. Sulman et al.

    123

  • range of 700–1000 �C, giving typically materials with lowspecific surface area. For this reason, also supported car-

    bides have been recently prepared and tested as catalysts

    [3, 13].

    Guaiacol HDO is typically performed in the temperature

    range of 250–50 �C under hydrogen pressure varying from20 to 55 bar (Table 2) [1, 4, 5, 10, 12–14, 17, 24].

    The results show that the main product is phenol when

    molybdenum and tungsten carbides are used as catalysts

    [4, 13], whereas supported Ni and ReOx catalysts gave

    cyclohexane as the main product [5, 24]. Several metal

    supported catalysts, such as TiO2–Pd–SiO2, Rh/ZrO2 and

    Au–Rh/TiO2 afforded also the deoxygenated product,

    cyclohexane [12, 14, 17], whereas Pt/C catalyzed only

    phenyl ring hydrogenation giving 2-methoxycyclohexanol

    as the main product [10].

    Because catalyst deactivation can be a serious issue in

    HDO of lignin derived substituted phenols, a special

    emphasis in the current work was put on the mass balance

    closure. The latter is typically represented through the sum

    of the masses of reactant and products in the liquid phase

    determined by GC. Another issue related to the mass bal-

    ance closure is analysis of the spent catalyst giving, in

    particular, information about adsorption of organic com-

    pounds on the catalyst surface and coking. Coke analysis

    has been scarcely reported in guaiacol HDO [8, 19, 25].

    One example is temperature programmed oxidation of

    spent Ni2P/SiO2 catalyst showing formation of CO and

    CO2 mostly at ca. 460 �C [25]. Thermogravimetric analysisperformed for the spent catalyst used in the gas-phase

    guaiacol HDO can be also mentioned showing ca. 20%

    weight loss in the case of Pt/C catalyst [8]. Coke was also

    estimated in gas phase HDO of guaiacol using Ni- and Fe-

    based commercial catalysts [19]. In the current work size

    exclusion chromatography (SEC) was used to qualitatively

    confirm the presence of oligomers. Even if oligomer

    analysis has been applied very rarely in the literature, one

    example related to HDO of bio-oil is worth mentioning

    [31] when gel permeation chromatography was utilized to

    analyze macromolecules.

    Kinetics of guaiacol transformation in batch reactors has

    been very scarcely reported including reactions over W2C/

    CNF, Mo2C/CNF [13], Mo2N [3] and ReOx [5]. From the

    discussion above it can be concluded that while molybde-

    num nitride and carbide have been used in guaiacol HDO,

    the literature is void from the data for supported Mo2C on

    Table 1 Different reactions in Scheme 1

    Entry Reaction Entry Reaction1 OH O

    CH3+ H2 CH3OH

    OH

    +

    9O

    CH3

    OOH

    OCH3 + 2H2

    2 OH

    + H2 + H2O

    10 OHO

    CH3+ H2O

    CH3

    O

    3+ 3H2

    11 OHO

    CH3

    OH

    CH3OH++ H2

    4 OH

    + CH4

    OH

    CH3

    + H2

    12 OHO

    CH3+ H2O+ 3H2

    OH

    OCH3

    5 OH

    CH3

    + H2CH3

    + H2O

    13 OHO

    CH3

    OCH3 + H2O+ H2

    6

    CH3

    + CH4+ H214

    + H2OH

    OCH3

    OCH3 + H2O

    7 OH OH

    + 3H2

    15 + 3H2O

    CH3

    OCH3

    8 OH

    + H2 + H2O

    16 O CH3 CH3OH++ H2

    17

    O

    OH OH

    +

    OH

    OH

    OH

    +

    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation 2455

    123

  • mesoporous supports. The aim in this work was thus to

    investigate kinetics of guaiacol transformation over

    40 wt% Mo2C/SBA-15 prepared from hexamethylenete-

    tramine ammonium heptamolybdate as a precursor.

    Mesoporous silica SBA-15 with the cavity size larger than

    6 nm [28] was selected as it can be expected that Mo2C

    would be well dispersed affording easier diffusion of the

    reacting molecules to the active sites. Mo2C/SBA-15 has

    been prepared previously from MoO3/SBA-15 via the

    temperature programmed carburization method [29].

    The novelty in this work regarding the materials is that

    Mo2C/SBA-15 has been prepared using hexamethylenete-

    tramine ammonium heptamolybdate complex as a precur-

    sor while this precursor has been earlier used in the

    synthesis of Mo2C [30]. According to our knowledge

    Mo2C/SBA-15 has not been investigated as a catalyst in

    HDO of phenolic lignin derived model compounds. As a

    benchmark catalyst Pt/C was used to compare its behavior

    with molybdenum carbide. In addition to kinetic studies

    also thermodynamics of guaiacol HDO, not previously

    reported, was explored using the Gibbs–Helmholtz equa-

    tion [32].

    2 Experimental

    Mesoporous silica with the SBA-15 structure was synthe-

    sized following the method reported by Zukal et al. [33].

    Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was used as a silica source;

    amphiphilic triblock copolymer P123 was applied as a

    structure directing agent. Synthesis of SBA-15 was

    performed at 95 �C during 66 h. The resulting solid wasrecovered by filtration, extensively washed with distilled

    water and dried at 80 �C overnight. The template wasremoved by calcination in air at 540 �C for 8 h (with thetemperature ramp of 1 �C/min). Calcined extrudates werecrushed using a laboratory jaw crusher and sieved to obtain

    a fraction 560 to 850 lm (Retsch AS 300).The supported catalyst was prepared by the incipient

    wetness impregnation method from hexamethylenete-

    tramine molybdate complex (HMT–AHM). The latter was

    synthesized according to the method reported by Afanasiev

    [34], who dissolved 86 g of hexamethylenetetramine

    (HMT) and 50 g of ammonium heptamolybdate (AHM) in

    400 mL and 300 mL distilled water, respectively. There-

    after, these solutions were mixed and the final solution was

    left in air at ambient conditions overnight resulting in

    precipitation of crystals. These crystals were filtered using

    a filter paper and washed with deionized water, followed by

    drying in air at ambient temperature for 3 days. The

    incipient wetness method was used to impregnate the

    HMT–AHM precursor on the support (2 g SBA-15) fol-

    lowed by drying at 120 �C overnight. This catalyst wascarburized with the same method as described above.

    Temperature programmed reduction was done in the

    flow of a gas mixture of 20 vol.% CH4 in H2 (the flow rate

    75 mL/min) during 3 h at 700 �C (the temperature ramp of10 �C/min) with further passivation of the final materialwith the mixture of 1 vol.% O2 in Ar (75 mL/min during

    2 h).

    40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 was reduced in pure H2 (flow

    rate * 50 mL/min) at 450 �C (heating rate 5 �C/min) for

    Table 2 Literature data on guaiacol hydrodeoxygenation

    Catalyst Solvent T

    (�C)Pressure

    (bar)

    Conversion (%)/time (h) Main product Yield, Y (%) or

    selectivity, S (%)

    References

    W2C/CNF Dodecane 350 55 88/6 Phenol S = 49 [13]

    Mo2C/CNF Dodecane 350 55 100/6 Phenol S = 38 [13]

    MoN/C Decalin 300 50 48/6 Phenol Y = 28 [4]

    Mo/C No solvent 350 40 92/Continuous mode, space

    time = 0.068 h

    Phenol Y = 45 [1]

    Ni/SiO2–

    ZrO2

    Dodecane 300 50 88/5 Cyclohexane S = 90 [24]

    ReOx/CNF Dodecane 300 50 98/6 Cyclohexane Y = 65 [5]

    Pt/C Hexadecane 259 30 87/1 2-

    Methoxycyclohexanol

    Y = 80 [10]

    TiO2–Pd/

    SiO2

    Dodecane 300 20 100/Continuous mode, weight

    hour space velocity = 24 h-1Cyclohexane Y = 63 [14]

    Au–Rh/TiO2 Gas phase 280 40 94/Continuous mode Cyclohexane Y = 62 [17]

    Rh/ZrO2–

    alumino

    silicate

    Decane 310 40 Not determined Cyclohexane Y = 68 [12]

    2456 A. Sulman et al.

    123

  • 13 h and cooled down to 170 �C under H2 flow and flushedwith Ar for 5 min. About 10–15 g of a solvent was intro-

    duced to the reduced catalyst under Ar flow to avoid oxi-

    dation. The catalyst was stored in the solvent overnight

    prior to its use.

    2.1 Catalyst Characterization Methods

    Thermogravimetric analysis of the fresh and the spent

    catalysts was performed under nitrogen using SDT Q600

    (V20.9 Build 20) instrument. About 6–8 mg of the sample

    was weighed, put in a platinum pan and heated from room

    temperature to 625 �C with a 10 �C/min ramp. The purgegas feed rate into the system was 100 mL/min.

    The synthesised catalyst was characterized by X-ray

    powder diffraction (XRD) analysis performed with X-ray

    diffractometer D8 Advance Eco (Bruker AXS) equipped

    with SSD 160 detector using Cu Ka emission atk = 1.54 Å. XRD patterns were collected in the range of2h values from 5� to 70� (0.021�/step, integration time of0.5 s per step). The X-ray tube voltage was set to 40 kV

    and the current to 25 mA. Diffraction data were evaluated

    using the Diffrac.Eva V 4.1.1 software. Subsequently,

    crystalline phases were identified according to the Powder

    Diffraction database of the International Centre for

    Diffraction Data (ICCD PDF2).

    The textural properties were characterized by N2-ad-

    sorption (BET) at 77 K performed with the gas sorption

    analyzer—Autosorb-iQ (Quantachrome Instruments).

    In order to examine the catalyst morphology transmis-

    sion electron microscopy (TEM) using JEM 1400 plus

    (JEOL) was applied. The acceleration voltage of 120 kV

    and the resolution of 0.98 nm for Quemsa II MPix bottom

    mounted digital camera were used. Scanning electron

    microscopy (Zeiss Leo Gemini 1530) was used to deter-

    mine the crystal morphology.

    Ammonia TPD was performed using Autochem 2910

    with the following temperature program: heating to 450 �Cfor 1 h, flushing the catalyst at 450 �C with helium, coolingto 100 �C—ammonia adsorption at 100 �C for 60 min,flushing chemisorbed ammonia away with helium flow at

    100 �C and then starting the temperature ramp 10 �C/minto 900 �C. The outlet was connected to MS recording theresponse from ammonia, water and CO.

    Coke was extracted from the selected spent catalysts

    using heptane as a solvent similar to [35]. The extraction

    was performed by refluxing the catalyst, 10 mg in heptane

    solution, 10 mL, for 4 h under stirring.

    2.2 Catalytic Tests and Analysis of ReactionMixture

    The reactions were carried out in 300 mL batch reactor

    (Parr Instruments) equipped with a stirrer and a sampling

    line (with a 5 lm filter in order to take only the liquid fromthe reactor) and cooling water circulation. The reactor was

    surrounded by an electrical heater. Argon (AGA 99.999%)

    and hydrogen (AGA 99.999%) gas bottles were coupled to

    the reactor system. The stirring speed during the reaction

    was 900 rpm to avoid external mass transfer limitations.

    In a typical experiment the liquid volume was 50 mL,

    dodecane was used as a solvent together with 100 mg of

    the reactant and 50 mg of a catalyst. Two temperature

    levels, 200 �C and 300 �C were selected for investigationswhile the total pressure of 30 bar was used in all experi-

    ments. Hydrogen partial pressures were at 200 �C and300 �C 29.3 bar and 24.8 bar, respectively.

    40 wt% MoxC/SBA-15 was pre-reduced prior to

    experiments, while the commercial reference catalyst

    5 wt% Pt/C (Degussa, F106, XKYF/W) was used without

    any prereduction. Total pressure of 30 bar was used also in

    the latter case.

    The samples taken at different times from the reactor

    were analyzed by gas chromatography using DB-1 capil-

    lary column (Agilent 122-13e) with the length of 30 m,

    internal diameter of 250 lm and the film thickness of0.50 lm. The flow rate of helium was 1.9 mL/min. Thefollowing temperature program was used: at 60 �C thetemperature was held for 5 min, followed by ramp of 3 �C/min until 300 �C, where it was maintained for 1 min. Thefollowing chemicals were used in the experiments and

    quantification of the reaction products: guaiacol (Fluka,

    C 98%), (1S,2S)-2-methoxycyclohexanol (Aldrich),

    methoxycyclohexane (Tokyo Chemical Industry Co.,

    C 98%), 2-methoxycyclohexanone (Tokyo Chemical

    Industry Co.,[ 95%), cyclohexanol (Sigma Aldrich,99%), phenol (Sigma Aldrich, 99%), cyclohexane (Lab-

    Scan, 99%), cresol (Sigma Aldrich,[ 98%), anisole(Sigma Aldrich,[ 99%), 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol(Sigma Aldrich,[ 98%) and benzene (Sigma Aldrich,[99%). The unknown reaction products were identified

    with GC–MS using a similar column and a method used

    with GC.

    Conversion of guaiacol was defined as:

    X ¼ c0;G � ci;Gc0;G

    � 100%; ð1Þ

    were X is conversion and c0,G and ci,G are the concentra-

    tions of guaiacol at the beginning and at time t. The product

    selectivity (or molar fraction) is defined as moles of a

    product P divided by the sum of all products visible in GC:

    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation 2457

    123

  • Molar fraction ¼ nPPnPi

    � 100%: ð2Þ

    It should be pointed out here that although guaiacol was

    in some cases converted rapidly, the products were not

    visible in chromatograms due to its oligomerisation. The

    sum of the masses of the reactant and products in the liquid

    phase (SMLP) determined by GC mass balance is defined

    as follows:

    SMLP ¼P

    mGiþPii;Gm0;G

    � 100% ð3Þ

    i.e. the sum of the masses of guaiacol and all products

    visible in chromatograms at time t divided by the initial

    mass of guaiacol.

    3 Results and Discussion

    3.1 Catalyst Characterization Results

    The BET specific area of 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 equal to

    340 m2/g is in the same range as reported for 30 wt%

    Mo2C–SBA-15, which exhibited BET surface area of

    403 m2/g [29]. The BET for the parent SBA-15 was

    645 m2/g. MoxC–SBA-15 was composed of both 50 wt%

    Mo2C and 50 wt% MoC phases, with MoC exhibiting

    peaks at 36.4�, 42.3�, 61.3� corresponding to (111), (200)and (220) faces [36] as denoted in XRD results (Fig. 1).

    TEM images of the fresh and spent 40 wt% MoxC–

    SBA-15 catalysts used in guaiacol HDO at 200 �C and300 �C under 30 bar showed no sintering with the averagecrystallite particle sizes for both materials being in the

    range of 6.1–7.3 nm (Fig. 2). In the fresh 40 wt% MoxC–

    SBA-15 catalysts some separate clusters with the size of

    140 nm outside SBA-15 matrix are visible, but their

    amount decreased in the spent catalyst, which was also

    indicated by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA)

    analysis giving Mo/Si ratio (discussed below).

    The fresh and spent 5 wt% Pt/C catalysts contained well

    dispersed spherical Pt particles with the average particle

    size of 3.1 and 3.2 nm, respectively indicating absence of

    sintering (Table 3; Fig. 3).

    EDXA results showed that the Mo/Si mass ratio

    decreased from the fresh 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 from 1.0

    to 0.88 when the catalyst was used in guaiacol HDO at

    300 �C (Table 3). This might indicate that a part ofmolybdenum was removed from the catalyst by leaching.

    Thermogravimetry is one of the methods to investigate

    coke on the catalyst surface. Analysis of the spent Ru/C

    catalyst used in guaiacol HDO in [8] demonstrated maxi-

    mally 35% weight loss from the spent catalyst in the

    temperature range of 100–1000 �C when the weight lossfrom the fresh catalyst was subtracted. In the current work

    the weight losses between 100 and 900 �C for the fresh andspent 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 used in guaiacol transfor-

    mation at 200 �C and 300 �C were 3, 39 and 8%, respec-tively, clearly showing that especially at 200 �C asubstantial amount of organic compounds was accumulated

    on the catalyst surface (Fig. 4a). In this case the catalyst

    was not very active, which will be further elaborated.

    A commercial 5 wt% Pt/C (Degussa) was tested in this

    work for comparison. The metal dispersion and the cluster

    size were 36.2% and 3 nm, respectively. The catalyst is

    slightly acidic as pH of the catalyst slurry is 5.6 [37]. The

    weight loss from the fresh 5 wt% Pt/C catalyst, which

    contains also water release, is 14% in the temperature

    range between 100 and 900 �C, being 34% for the spent5 wt% Pt/C catalyst applied in guaiacol transformation at

    300 �C under 30 bar (Fig. 4).

    0 2 4 6 8 10

    0

    200

    400

    600

    800

    1000

    1200

    1400

    1600

    1800

    Inte

    nsity

    (a.u

    .)

    2 Theta (o)5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70

    0

    2

    4

    o

    o

    o

    o

    o

    o

    o

    o

    o

    *

    *

    *

    **

    ***

    Inte

    nsity

    (a.u

    .)

    2 Theta (°)

    o

    (a) (b)

    Fig. 1 Diffractograms of a SBA-15 and b 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15. Notation: (asterisks) Mo2C and (open circles) MoC phases. The diffractionpeaks of Mo2C and MoC have been taken from PDFs 71-0242 and 89-4305, respectively

    2458 A. Sulman et al.

    123

  • In this work coke was extracted from the spent catalysts

    used in guaiacol transformation at 200 �C under totalpressure of 30 bar hydrogen with refluxing heptane for 4 h

    and analyzed by SEC (Fig. 5). The amount of extracted

    oligomers from the spent 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 was

    high. When comparing the peaks in SEC chromatogram

    with the reference (polystyrene), it can be stated that the

    main oligomers over MoxC–SBA-15 contained mostly

    more than nine and five monomeric units.

    a

    5 10 150

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    120

    140

    160

    180

    Size Range (nm)

    Freq

    uenc

    y

    b

    c

    5 10 150

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    120

    140

    160

    180

    Size range (nm)

    Freq

    uenc

    y

    d

    e

    5 10 15 200

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    120

    140

    160

    180

    Size range (nm)

    Freq

    uenc

    y

    f

    Fig. 2 Transmission electron microscopy images and histograms ofthe fresh (a and b), the spent (c and d) 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15catalysts in the reaction of guaiacol at 200 �C under total pressure of

    30 bar and 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 catalysts (e and f) in the reactionof guaiacol at 300 �C under total pressure of 30 bar. The scale bar is100 nm

    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation 2459

    123

  • Extensive coking of MoxC–SBA-15 can be explained by

    high temperature used in the current work for deoxygena-

    tion of guaiacol. Furthermore, the main product was ben-

    zene (see below). Demethoxylation and reductive

    hydroxylation can thus lead to catalyst coking.

    3.2 Thermodynamic Analysis of GuaiacolHydrodeoxygenation

    In order to reveal thermodynamic consistency of the

    experimentally observed results calculations of the Gibbs

    Table 3 Characterization results of the fresh and spent catalysts

    Catalyst Metal particle size TEM (nm) Specific surface area (m2/gcat.) Phases (XRD) Mo/Si ratio (SEM–EDXA)

    Fresh Spent Fresh Spent

    40 wt% Mo2C–SBA-15 7.3 6.1b 340 Mo2C, MoC Mo/Si = 1.0 Mo/Si = 0.88

    b

    7.0c

    5 wt% Pt/C 3.1 3.2a 916 n.d. n.d. n.d.

    n.d. Not determinedaFrom the spent catalyst used in guaiacol transformation at 300 �CbFrom the spent catalyst used in guaiacol transformation at 200 �CcFrom the spent catalyst used in guaiacol transformation at 200 �C

    b

    d

    0

    200

    400

    600

    800

    1000

    3 6 9Fr

    eque

    ncy

    Size range

    0100200300400500600700800900

    1000

    3 6 9

    Freq

    uenc

    y

    Size range, nm

    a

    c

    Fig. 3 Transmission electron microscopy images and histograms of the fresh (a and b) and spent (c and d) 5 wt% Pt/C catalysts in the reaction ofguaiacol at 300 �C under 30 bar total pressure. The scale bar is 50 nm

    2460 A. Sulman et al.

    123

  • free energy changes were made. Enthalpy (DH0r ) and Gibbsfree energy (DG0r ) at standard conditions were calculatedby following a thermodynamic approach, starting from the

    standard enthalpy (DH0f ) and Gibbs free energy (DG0f ) of

    formation from the elements derived from the database

    included in ChemCAD v.5.0 [38],

    DH0r;j ¼X

    j

    mi;j � DH0f ;i; ð4Þ

    DG0r;j ¼X

    j

    mi;j � DG0f ;i: ð5Þ

    The equilibrium constant of each reaction was calcu-

    lated from its definition,

    K0j ¼ exp �DG0r;iRT

    !

    : ð6Þ

    The dependence of the reaction free Gibbs energy on

    temperature was included by implementing the Gibbs–

    Helmholtz equation valid at P = 1 bar (DGUr;j).

    DGUr;jðTÞT

    ¼DG0r;jT0

    þ DH0r;j1

    T� 1T0

    � �

    : ð7Þ

    Finally, to calculate the DGr,j at different pressures, thefollowing equation was implemented.

    DGr;jðPÞ ¼ DGUr;j þ nRT lnP

    P0

    � �

    : ð8Þ

    The calculated enthalpy and Gibbs free energy forma-

    tion for each component are reported in Table 4. The data

    were retrieved from ChemCAD v.5.0 database directly.

    Starting from these values, the enthalpy and Gibbs free

    energy for each reaction (j) at standard conditions, equi-

    librium constants at standard conditions (K0j ), enthalpy and

    Gibbs free energy at different temperatures and pressure

    were calculated. Two different temperatures were investi-

    gated (T1= 473.15 K, T2= 573.15 K) and the energy values

    were calculated also at P1= 25 bar.

    The most feasible reaction is hydrogenation of guaiacol

    to 2-methoxycyclohexanol in Table 4 (step 12) at 200 �Cunder 1 bar hydrogen followed by reductive dehydroxyla-

    tion of cyclohexanol and 2-methoxycyclohexanol (steps 8

    and 11). The effect of hydrogen pressure on Gibbs free

    energy is clearly visible at both temperatures, i.e. the

    reactions became less favorable with increasing hydrogen

    pressure for all reactions. Hydrogenation of phenol and

    0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

    0

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    40 wt% Mo2C-SBA-15, Gua, 200°C

    40 wt% Mo2C-SBA-15, Gua, 300°CM

    ass

    loss

    (%)

    Temperature (°C)

    fresh

    0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

    0

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    Pt/C guaiacol, 300oC

    Mas

    s lo

    ss (%

    )

    Temperature (°C)

    Pt/C fresh

    (a) (b)

    Fig. 4 Thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA) of the fresh and spent a 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 and b 5 wt% Pt/C

    10 15 20 25

    0

    20000

    40000

    60000

    80000

    100000

    120000

    Inten

    sity (

    a.u)

    Time (min)

    Fig. 5 Size exclusionchromatogram (SEC) of the

    extracted spent 40 wt% MoxC–

    SBA-15. The catalyst was used

    in guaiacol transformation at

    200 �C under 30 bar totalpressure

    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation 2461

    123

  • benzene became also thermodynamically not feasible at

    300 �C under 25 bar (steps 7, 3). Experimental determi-nation of 2-methoxycyclohexanone in the reaction at

    300 �C under 30 bar total pressure in the current workagrees well with the thermodynamic calculations for step

    10 showing that hydrogenation of 2-methoxycyclohex-

    anone is not feasible at 300 �C under 25 bar. Table 4 alsoillustrates that alkylation of phenol with (step 4) is ther-

    modynamically not feasibly, while there are no thermo-

    dynamic restrictions for formation of cresol by

    transalkylation of phenol with guaiacol.

    3.3 Catalytic Results

    Supported on SBA-15 molybdenum carbide was investi-

    gated in guaiacol transformation at 200 �C under 30 bartotal pressure not, however, giving any products visible in

    GC chromatograms. This indicates strong adsorption of

    guaiacol on the catalyst surface as also confirmed by TGA

    and SEC analysis. The sum of the masses of reactant and

    products in the liquid phase determined by GC results was

    therefore equal to zero (Table 5).

    Supported 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 was at the same time

    active at 300 �C giving the final conversion levels of 62%after 240 min (Table 5). The sum of the masses of the

    reactant and products in the liquid phase determined by GC

    for 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 was only 37%. When the solid

    material determined in TGA was added to the sum of the

    masses of the reactant and products in the liquid phase

    determined by GC, it was still only 40%. These sums of the

    masses of reactant and products in the liquid phase deter-

    mined by GC contain only compounds visible in the GC

    and the solid organic residue determined by TGA. In the

    extraction of the spent catalyst 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15

    from guaiacol transformation at 200 �C large amounts ofoligomers were observed. The sum of the masses of the

    reactant and products in the liquid phase determined by GC

    obtained for molybdenum carbide catalyst supported on

    SBA-15 in the current work in guaiacol transformation at

    300 �C under 30 bar total pressure is lower than the onereported by Jongerius et al. [13], namely 72% at 350 �Cunder 55 bar of hydrogen over Mo2C/CNF. Higher sums of

    the masses of the reactant and products in the liquid phase

    determined by GC were reported in [2] in the range of

    74–93% in guaiacol HDO in water as a solvent over Mo2C

    supported on active carbon at 300 �C under 137 barhydrogen. It has been reported that the mass balance clo-

    sure increases with increasing hydrogen pressure [13],

    which is relatively low in the current work as compared to

    [13].

    Concentration dependencies for guaiacol HDO over

    40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 at 300 �C as well as selectivitydependence on conversion are given in Fig. 6. Guaiacol

    transformation was very rapid already during heating of the

    reaction mixture. Thereafter, the catalyst retained its

    activity during the course of the reaction.

    The main product in guaiacol transformation over

    40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 catalysts at 300 �C at the

    Table 4 Enthalpy and Gibbs free energy for each reaction (j) (reaction numbers are shown in Scheme 1) at standard conditions, equilibriumconstants at standard conditions (K0j ), enthalpy and Gibbs free energy at different temperatures and pressures (T1 = 200 �C, T2 = 300 �C)

    j DH0r;j (kJ/mol) DG0r;j (kJ/mol) K

    0j DG

    Ur;j (T1)

    (kJ/mol)

    DGUr;j (T2)(kJ/mol)

    DGr,j (T1, P1)(kJ/mol)

    DGr,j (T2, P1)(kJ/mol)

    1 - 48.3 - 70.3 2.07 9 1012 - 83.2 - 90.6 - 70.6 - 75.3

    2 - 62.5 - 66.3 4.15 9 1011 - 68.6 - 69.8 - 55.9 - 54.5

    3 - 206 - 9.78 9 104 1.35 9 1017 - 34.3 19.3 - 21.7 17.3

    4 45.9 5.18 9 104 8.56 9 10-10 55.2 57.2 67.9 72.5

    5 - 66.3 - 7.47 9 104 1.21 9 1013 - 79.6 - 82.4 - 67.0 - 67.1

    6 - 42.1 - 4.34 9 104 4.00 9 107 - 44.1 - 44.6 - 31.5 - 29.2

    7 - 198 - 8.52 9 104 8.51 9 1014 - 19.0 18.8 - 0.635 34.2

    8 - 70.4 - 78.9 9 104 6.57 9 1013 - 83.9 - 86.7 - 71.2 - 71.4

    9 - 134 - 83.9 9 104 5.04 9 1014 - 54.3 - 37.4 - 41.7 - 22.1

    10 - 41.5 1.88 4.69 9 10-1 27.4 41.9 40.0 57.3

    11 - 70.4 - 73.5 7.46 9 1012 - 75.3 - 76.3 - 62.6 - 61.0

    12 - 418 - 310 2.48 9 1054 - 248 - 212 - 235 - 196

    13 - 77.2 - 81.5 1.87 9 1014 - 83.9 - 85.4 - 71.3 - 70.0

    14 - 60.8 - 81.3 1.75 9 1014 - 93.4 - 100 - 80.7 - 84.9

    15 - 192 - 82.2 2.52 9 1014 - 17.6 19.4 - 4.89 34.7

    16 - 63.5 - 70.9 2.62 9 1012 - 75.2 - 77.7 - 62.5 - 62.3

    17 - 48.7 - 62.1 7.50 9 1010 - 69.9 - 74.4 - 57.2 - 59.0

    2462 A. Sulman et al.

    123

  • beginning of the reaction was benzene, whereas its selec-

    tivity declined with increasing conversion and at the same

    time selectivity to phenol increased (Fig. 6b). Formation of

    phenol as the main product was also seen for Mo2C/CNF

    [13]. On the other hand, cresol was the second major

    product [13], whereas no cresol was obtained in the current

    work over 40 wt% MoxC/SBA-15. Formation of cresol

    requires transalkylation over acidic sites [39], which were

    not detected in this catalyst by ammonia TPD (not shown).

    Selectivity towards aromatic products, phenol, and

    benzene decreased slightly from 94 to 86% during 4 h

    reaction when selectivity to cyclohexanol was increasing to

    a minor extent.

    As a comparison to supported molybdenum carbide

    guaiacol HDO was also investigated over 5 wt% Pt/C both

    at 200 �C and 300 �C. Guaiacol reacted at 200 �C veryrapidly during heating of the reaction mixture, since its

    conversion was already 19% after 1 min. The reaction rate

    between 1 and 120 min was 0.02 mmol/min/gcat. after

    which the catalyst was completely deactivated and the final

    conversion remained at 46% level after 240 min (Fig. 7).

    This result is in accordance with the literature [10],

    reporting rapid guaiacol transformations at 250 �C with87% conversion over Pt/C under 30 bar hydrogen. For Pd/

    silica alumina catalyst there was no conversion of guaiacol

    at 200 �C under 30 bar hydrogen and this catalyst started toexhibit some activity at 230 �C. In addition, PtPd–Al–HMS(mesoporous aluminosilicate) was active in guaiacol HDO

    surprisingly already at 200 �C under 50 bar hydrogen in3 h in methanol as a solvent giving 80% conversion [26].

    This result is not directly comparative with the current

    results due to the presence of methanol as a solvent and

    lower pressure. Transformations of guaiacol at 300 �Cproceeded also very fast already during heating giving

    conversion of 51% in 1 min (Fig. 8). After the first minute

    the reaction rate was also very high, 0.06 mmol/min/gcat. in

    the time range of 1 to 120 min. Noteworthy is also that

    even after 240 min traces of guaiacol were visible in the

    GC analysis indicating catalyst deactivation.

    The sums of the masses of the reactant and products in

    the liquid phase determined by GC obtained in guaiacol

    transformation at 200 �C and 300 �C over 5 wt% Pt/Cwere 91% and 95%, respectively, reflecting minor

    Table 5 Experimental results for guaiacol HDO

    Catalysts T (�C) X SMLPa Sphenolb Scresol Sbenzene SIPB S2MCHOL S2MCHONE SMCH SCHOL SCH

    Mo 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

    Mo 300 62 37 15 0 71 0 0 0 0 4 10

    Pt 200 46 91 0 0 0 0 81 0 2 15 3

    Pt 300 98 95 0 0 0 0 69 26 0 5 0

    IPB isopropylbenzene, 2MCHOL 2-methylcyclohexanol, 2MCHONE 2-methylcyclohexanone, MCH methylcyclohexane, CHOL cyclohexanol,

    CH cyclohexaneaAt 60% conversionbSelectivity (mol%) refers to 50% conversion

    (a) (b)

    Fig. 6 HDO of guaiacol over 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 at 300 �Cunder 30 bar a concentration dependencies and b molar fraction ofproducts as a function of conversion. Symbols: guaiacol (filled

    squares), phenol (filled triangles), benzene (filled circles), cyclohex-

    anol (open squares), and cyclohexane (open circles)

    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation 2463

    123

  • accumulation of some organic materials on the catalyst

    surface as also shown in TGA. When the sum of the masses

    of the reactant and products in the liquid phase determined

    by GC in guaiacol transformation over 5 wt% Pt/C was

    calculated taking into account both GC results from the

    liquid phase and TGA results, the sum of the masses of the

    reactant and products in the liquid phase determined by GC

    was 100%. In addition, accumulation of organic material

    was more prominent at lower temperature, being aligned

    with the literature data on guaiacol transformation over

    Mo2C/CNF catalyst [13]. For comparison, when Pt/C was

    used as a catalyst at 250 �C the guaiacol conversion was87%, and only totally 80% of products were observed [10].

    The main product in guaiacol transformation over

    5 wt% Pt/C was 2-methoxycyclohexanol both at 200 �Cand 300 �C (Figs. 8, 9) analogously to the results in [10].

    From the time dependent concentration profiles, it can

    also be seen that deoxygenation occurs to a minor extent

    since only low amounts of cyclohexane were formed.

    Relatively large amounts of 2-methoxycyclohexanone were

    formed at 300 �C, whereas this intermediate was not visi-ble at 200 �C. For formation of 2-methoxycyclohexanonetwo routes could be proposed, either starting from dehy-

    drogenation of 2-methoxycyclohexanol or alternatively

    directly from guaiacol via reversible hydrogenation–dehy-

    drogenation analogously to phenol–cyclohexanone route

    [40]. Experimental results show that as expected it is

    thermodynamically more difficult to hydrogenate

    2-methoxycyclohexanone at 300 �C compared to 200 �C.Consecutive reactions, such as hydrogenolysis of

    2-methoxycyclohexanol were not occurring to a large

    extent, which was also shown by thermodynamic analysis.

    The molar fraction of 2-methoxycyclohexanol remained at

    0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 2400.000

    0.005

    0.010

    0.015

    Con

    cent

    ratio

    n (m

    ol/l)

    Time (min)0 10 20 30 40

    0

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    Mol

    ar fr

    actio

    n (m

    ol-%

    )

    Conversion %

    (a) (b)

    Fig. 7 Guaiacol transformation over 5 wt% Pt/C catalyst at 200 �Cunder 30 bar total pressure, a concentrations of different compoundsand b molar fraction as a function of guaiacol conversion, notation for

    a and b guaiacol (filled squares), 2-methoxycyclohexanol (times),cyclohexane (open circles), 2-methoxycyclohexane (open squares),

    cyclohexanol (filled circles)

    0 60 120 180 240

    0.000

    0.002

    0.004

    0.006

    0.008

    0.010

    0.012

    0.014

    Con

    cent

    ratio

    n (m

    ol/l)

    Time (min)

    40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100

    0

    20

    40

    60

    80

    100

    Mol

    ar fr

    actio

    n (%

    )

    Conversion (%)

    (a)(b)

    Fig. 8 Guaiacol HDO over 5 wt% Pt/C at 300 �C under 30 bar totalpressure in hydrogen: a concentration profiles and b molar fraction ofproducts as a function of guaiacol conversion. Notation: guaiacol

    (filled squares), phenol (filled triangles), cyclohexanol (open squares),

    cyclohexane (open circles), methoxy-cyclohexanone (plus) and

    2-methoxycyclohexanol (times) and 2-methoxycyclohexane

    (asterisks)

    2464 A. Sulman et al.

    123

  • a constant level of 80% at 200 �C with increasing con-version (Fig. 7), whereas at 300 �C it decreased onlyslightly giving cyclohexanol via demethoxylation (Fig. 8;

    Scheme 1). At 200 �C selectivity to cyclohexanol was2-fold higher compared to 300 �C indicating thatdemethoxylation occurs already at relatively low temper-

    atures. Moreover, only minor amounts of cyclohexane (few

    %), a fully deoxygenated product, were formed over 5 wt%

    Pt/C catalyst. It can be concluded that a mildly acidic

    5 wt% Pt/C promotes mainly hydrogenation of the phenyl

    ring thus consuming 3 mol of hydrogen per 1 mol of

    guaiacol and producing as the main product the non-oxy-

    genated 2-methoxycyclohexanol.

    A similar reaction pathway as mentioned above was

    observed for 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 catalysts at 300 �Cwhen guaiacol very fast gave a constant concentration of

    benzene followed by a gradual transformation of guaiacol

    to 2-methoxycyclohexanol. This part of the overall reaction

    network can be thus essentially simplified leading to

    Guaiacolads $ Guaiacol ! 2 - methoxycyclohexanone! 2 - methoxycyclohexanol:

    ð9Þ

    In Eq. (9) it is suggested that there is strong adsorption

    of guaiacol on the catalyst forming some sort of its reser-

    voir on the surface, which explains a lack of mass balance

    closure in the liquid phase at the beginning of the reaction

    and its increase when the reaction proceeds. In essence

    hydrogenation of guaiacol to 2-methoxycyclohexanone and

    2-methoxycyclohexanol shifts this equilibrium involving

    strongly adsorbed guaiacol in favor of hydrogenation. At

    the beginning of the reaction guaiacol concentration

    decreased very rapidly giving benzene and strongly

    adsorbed guaiacol. With increasing reaction time

    2-methoxycyclohexanol started to be formed with

    increasing the mass balance closure. The latter compound

    displays a clear S-shaped behavior pointing out that

    2-methoxycyclohexanone was formed as an intermediate.

    The rates for this scheme are given as

    rG!2MCHO ¼ qBkG!2MCHOcG; ð10Þr2MCHO!2MCHL ¼ qBk2MCHO!2MCHLc2MCHO; ð11ÞrG!Gads ¼ qBkG!GadscG; ð12ÞrGads!G ¼ qBkGads!GcGads; ð13Þ

    where qB is the catalyst bulk density, G, Gads, 2MCHOand MCHL denote guaiacol, strongly adsorbed guaiacol,

    2-methoxycyclohexanone and 2-methoxycyclohexanol.

    The corresponding mass balances for each compound

    are given as

    dcG

    dt¼ �rG!2MCHO � rG!Gads þ rGads!G; ð14Þ

    dc2MCHO

    dt¼ rG!2MCHO � r2MCHO!2MCHL; ð15Þ

    dc2MCHL

    dt¼ r2MCHO!2MCHL: ð16Þ

    Because concentration of benzene did not change during

    the reaction it was included in modelling only indirectly.

    Namely the concentration of strongly adsorbed guaiacol

    was calculated by subtracting concentration of benzene,

    guaiacol, 2-methoxycyclohexanone and 2-methoxycyclo-

    hexanol from the initial concentration of guaiacol. The

    kinetic parameters were estimated using the backward

    difference method as a subtask to the parameter estimation

    with simplex and Levenberg–Marquardt methods imple-

    mented in software ModEst [41]. The objective function

    was defined as

    h ¼X

    yi � ŷið Þ2 ð15Þ

    and the coefficient of determination R2 is defined as

    Fig. 9 Comparison of experimental and calculated data for HDO ofguaiacol over 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 at 300 �C under 30 bar

    Table 6 The estimated parameters for hydrogenation of guaiacol over40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 at 300 �C under 30 bar

    Parameter Estimate Standard error (%)

    qBk2MCHO!2MCHL 0.0163 7.2

    qBkG!2MCHO 0.0021 9.3

    qBkGads!G 0.6 93

    qBkG!Gads 60.5 84

    Units of qBki are min-1

    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol Hydrodeoxygenation 2465

    123

  • R2 ¼ 1 �P

    ðyi � ŷiÞ2P

    ðyi � �yiÞ2

    ð16Þ

    in which �yi is the mean value of observations and ŷi denotesmodel estimation. The calculated values of parameters

    along with standard errors are given in Table 6.

    The model fit is shown in Fig. 9, illustrating a good

    overall description, which also follows from the value of

    the degree of explanation (97.22%).

    4 Conclusions

    Kinetics of guaiacol HDO was investigated in a batch

    reactor using 40 wt% MoxC–SBA-15 and 5 wt% Pt/C

    catalysts. Molybdenum carbide was prepared starting from

    hexamethylenetetramine molybdate as a precursor com-

    plex. Deposition of molybdenum carbide on SBA-15

    resulted in both MoC and Mo2C phases and the specific

    surface area of 340 m2/gcat. being more than 100-fold

    higher than that for neat Mo2C. The average MoxC particle

    size in the supported catalyst was 7.3 nm.

    Thermodynamic calculations according to the Gibbs–

    Helmholtz equation confirmed feasibility of guaiacol HDO

    to phenol in the range of 200–300 �C, used for experi-ments. Exothermic hydrogenation reactions in the reactions

    network being thermodynamically feasible at 200 �Cbecame unfeasible at higher temperatures.

    A comparative investigation using 5 wt% Pt/C and

    MoxC as catalysts clearly showed that a non acidic Pt/C

    catalyst was very active giving 98% conversion of guaiacol

    at 300 �C under 30 bar total pressure during 240 min. Themain product with 5 wt% Pt/C was 2-methoxycyclohex-

    anol indicating that it is not a suitable catalyst for pro-

    duction of hydrocarbons consuming also large amounts of

    hydrogen during hydrogenation of the aromatic ring. At the

    same time supported molybdenum carbide catalysts resul-

    ted in formation of phenol, benzene and cyclohexane in the

    liquid phase. Kinetic modelling was done quantitatively

    describing the concentration dependences with time.

    Acknowledgements Open access funding provided by Abo AkademiUniversity (ABO). Lenka Pelı́šková is acknowledged for performing

    XRD measurements.

    Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the CreativeCommons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creative

    commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, dis-

    tribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give

    appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a

    link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were

    made.

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    Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol HydrodeoxygenationAbstractGraphic Abstract IntroductionExperimentalCatalyst Characterization MethodsCatalytic Tests and Analysis of Reaction Mixture

    Results and DiscussionCatalyst Characterization ResultsThermodynamic Analysis of Guaiacol HydrodeoxygenationCatalytic Results

    ConclusionsAcknowledgementsReferences